Patrick Horgan: Cork GAA let players down by not quashing hurling final rumours

Horgan said that if Pat Ryan had remained on as Cork hurling manager for another term, and had asked him to continue playing, he would have done so.

Tue, 30 Sep, 2025 - 15:52

PJ Browne

Patrick Horgan believes Cork GAA failed its players by not quashing rumours of a dressing room bust-up during this year’s All-Ireland hurling final defeat to Tipperary.

“There are things they could have done better,” Horgan told Colm Parkinson’s Smaller Fish GAA podcast.

“I'm even referring back to the All-Ireland final on this. I think there were certain times where they could have helped out everybody, to be honest, the half-time rubbish that was being said, which wasn't true at all. I think they just left that lingering there. Left us to take the brunt of it really.

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“There was pretty bad stuff going around even though, to be fair, I hadn't been sent anything but a few of my buddies that I trust came to me and were like, ‘this is what's going on, this is what's being said. You were fighting here, you were fighting there and everywhere’.

“Couldn't be further from the truth. I was happy a couple of weeks ago when Pat (Ryan) was chatting, that he quashed it anyway.”

Horgan said that the nature of the defeat to Tipperary meant players wanted to keep a low profile after the game. He also believes it should not have been up to the players to refute the rumours.

“Jesus, for a few weeks after the All-Ireland there, I wasn't really great,” said Horgan. “Afraid to go somewhere. Afraid to answer your phone. Afraid to do anything really. That's the hard thing about it.

“As a player, I know this from talking to all the rest of the players, you're down. There's no point in saying otherwise, you're down. You don't want to really talk about anything.

“No matter what someone accuses you of, you're like, 'whatever, I actually don't care'. I don't think it was for one of us.

“We're just going to be shot at again if you come out and say something, you're no good, you're going to be shot at again.

“I think it shouldn't have been in our hands to come out and say something like that. Why would we have to say it? We know it wasn't true and they know it wasn't true.

“They should have just said, ‘look, this is the story. There's nothing going on, nothing happened’, which there wasn't. That's the truth.”

Horgan continued: “You go in at half-time, try and get your breath because your lungs are on fire. Have a drink, have a chat from the players.

“And the chat from players is usually, what are you doing positive? What can we work on? No individual stuff. The manager comes in, gives his talk and off we go. I don't even know where there's time for these arguments or these slaps or that kind of weird stuff. And anybody that's ever been in a dressing room, I think they'll feel the same.”

One of the main factors in Horgan’s recent decision to retire from inter-county hurling was wanting to spend more time with his son Jack. Though, Horgan added that there are “obviously other factors as well that I wouldn't even want to talk about. Pat (Ryan) leaving and all that, it was really hard. Pat was well got and I loved playing for him. That was disappointing.”

Asked if he would have continued to play for Cork had Ryan remained as manager, Horgan said: “I probably would have done anything in the world that Pat Ryan told me to do. If he had wanted me to do anything, I probably would have done it for him.

“You hear all the other players, everybody talks about him the same. He's the best man ever and the players all love him.”

Horgan said that he did not discuss his retirement decision with new Cork manager Ben O’Connor.

“I pray they win it because obviously I see the work they do,” Horgan said about his former teammates, “great friends with them all, like the things they put their bodies through.

“Even for the boys now that are driving on, it'll probably focus their minds another bit again.

“They'll all level up for the season ahead. That's all you can really do. Get back at it and just drive it over to yourself. Drive the pain of it over to yourself by training hard and getting yourself the best you possibly can and having another crack.”

Horgan retires as hurling's all-time top scorer. Though, should TJ Reid decide to play on for another year, the Kilkenny forward is likely to take that title.

"He's going to play till he's about 50," Horgan said about Reid.

"That was always going to be the way. I have it now. It's good that when I go, I have it. There's not much more I can do about it now."